The concept of moving hay stacks is well known in the art. The original concept of such moving was related to the movement of longitudinally provided stacks wherein the stack was formed by stacking beds of hay upon one another and thereafter driving a loader under the stack and, through the use of teeth upon a longitudinal bed, move the stack onto the bed. Many units of operation have now advanced to rolled bales and these same units are totally impractical for lifting and transporting of such rolled units. The art therefore has progressed to various means for the loading and transport of rolled bales from the area of growth to the area of useage and a new art has developed to accomodate rolled bales.
The applicant has made a thorough search of the art with regard to devices that are capable of loading and transferring hay stacks in baled or pile form and the best art that the applicant was able to discover is as follows: Honomichl, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,138; McFarland, U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,140; Cox, U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,629; Gilbert, U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,179; Runyan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,616; Goode, U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,690; Wright et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,737; McLean U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,457; Schrag et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,071; Hostetler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,765; and, Adam, U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,940.
Of all of these patents, it appears that only several of the same are directed in concept to the device that the applicant has provided. These would be the patents to Schrag et al, Hostetler and Honomichl, Sr. These are the only references that disclose the combination of loading and longitudinal movement of the loaded bales to provide room upon the trailer or tailing devices for the addition of further bales. These patents also provide a means for picking rolled bales from the ground for shifting onto the loading area with a device that may even be considered with the applicant's concepts.
Besides these three primary patents, the patent to Adam should be considered but this patent does not provide an inverting positioning device but rather provides a roll-off device which will not insure positive positioning upon the trailer and transport mechanism.
In all of this prior art, the units do not provide for a plurality of side-by-side loading situations and therefore, the amount of bales being moveable upon any one given operation is drastically limited in comparison to the device as provided by the applicant.
It is therefore an object of the applicant's invention to provide a device for the picking, loading and transport of rolled bales which includes the stacking of a plurality of rolled bales in side-by-side relation upon a trailer unit.
It is a further object of the applicant's invention to provide a device for the picking up, loading and transport of rolled bales which includes the positioning of a plurality of bales onto a trailer assembly with the trailer being provided with longitudinally moveable driving members for shifting the loading bales rearwardly along the trailer assembly such that a plurality of bales may be positioned upon and carried by the trailer assembly.
It is a further object of the applicant's invention to provide a hydraulically actuated, bale gripping and lifting mechanism for the pickup of rolled bales from ground level and transfer thereof to a trailer, transport assembly and whereby the loading assembly may be utilized for the unloading of the bales from the trailer or the bales may be deposited from the end of the trailer by utilizing the longitudinal drive mechanism.
These and other objects and advantages of the applicant's invention will more fully appear from a consideration of the accompanying description made in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.